Bad blow for biathlon. Discipline will have to grit its teeth and count every penny over the next few months. At issue is a decision by the IOC Executive Board to suspend its financial contribution to its international federation, the IBU.
The decision was not really expected. It was announced Tuesday June 12 via a brief press release. The IOC soberly explains that the members of the Executive Board unanimously decided, after discussion, to suspend all direct financial contributions paid by the IOC to the IBU.
The measure is intended to be radical. But it only appears to be temporary. The IOC press release makes it clear in black and white: the freezing of subsidies to the IBU is effective pending two measures.
The first one is already on the calendar. The IOC will maintain its suspension until the election of a new president at the IBU Congress, scheduled for September 5-10, 2018 in Croatia. An election intended to provide the federation with a stable management and governance structure.
To date, two candidates have declared themselves to succeed the Norwegian Anders Besseberg, president of the IBU for 25 years, but pushed out last April after the discovery of his role in the Russian doping scandal at the Sochi Games in 2014 (he allegedly received $300.000 in bribes to hide positive cases of Russian biathletes). The Swede Olle Dahlin, vice-president of the IBU, will compete with the Latvian Baiba Broka, former Minister of Justice of her country.
The other condition imposed by the IOC to reopen the financial floodgates promises to be more restrictive. The Olympic organization wants to be able to examine an amended IBU code of ethics, to have in hand an audit carried out by the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations (iNADO) on the IBU anti-doping program. Finally, it is requested to provide “ a detailed summary of the actions taken by the independent IBU working group, led by Stephan Netzle, regarding the Moscow SGIL database and the corresponding elements revealed by WADA"
Clarification: the IBU management team must provide all these documents and reports to the IOC no later than September 10, 2018. A summary of the file will then be submitted to the Executive Board for examination at its meeting on October 3 and 4 2018. The summer promises to be busy in Salzburg, Austria, at the IBU headquarters.
